A number of small marine stoves are commercially available, many of them gimbal mounted to remain upright during pitching and rolling of a boat. A primary consideration with any such stove is safety, not only from the obvious standpoint of minimizing potential fire hazards but also from the standpoint of minimizing the possibility of persons near the stove burning themselves by contact with hot parts of it and of spillage of material being heated by the stove. It is also desirable that such a stove provide for reasonably fast heating, and to that end its fuel source is preferably bottled gas and the burner of the stove has provision for detachable connection with the small bottles in which pressurized fuel gas is commercially supplied.
Most of the stoves of this type that are now available have a pair of upright arms or similar structure projecting a substantial distance above the burner for swingable connection with a yoke which in turn rocks about a transverse axis to comprise a part of a gimbal support for the stove. The yoke is substantially Y-shaped, with a short stem portion which provides for its rockable support and which is readily removably receivable in a fitting that may be permanently mounted on a bulkhead or other structural member. The upwardly projecting portions of the stove that connect with the yoke impose stringent limitations upon the maximum diameter of cooking vessels that can be used with the stove, and they tend to interfere with access to a cooking vessel resting on the stove. Unless the cooking vessel has a laterally projecting handle (which can present problems in a rough sea) its removal from the stove may require adroit manipulation.
From a structural standpoint, such conventional gimbal mounting arrangements leave much to be desired. The forwardly divergent arms of the yoke have to be rather sturdy and bulky to support the stove plus a vessel and its contents, and they concentrate highly leveraged forces upon the short rearwardly projecting stem portion of the yoke and the fitting in which that stem portion pivots.
Although these disadvantages of heretofore conventional gimbal mountings for small stoves have been clearly evident, the problem of devising a better arrangement has not been easy to solve. An important consideration is that the fitting that carries the gimbal structure can be permanently mounted on a bulkhead or the like but should accommodate quick and easy removal of the gimbal structure, and with the stove and gimbals removed the fitting should protrude as little as possible from the structural member to which it is attached. When taken down, the gimbal structure should itself be very compact, to occupy a minimum of stowage space. It will be apparent that the center of gravity of the system comprising the stove itself, a vessel on the stove and contents of the vessel must be spaced as far as possible beneath the gimbal pivot axes, to ensure that the stove will maintain an upright attitude in a rough sea.